By Maria Luisa Cesar :
May 11, 2013
: Updated: May 12, 2013 12:26am

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Arthur V. Valdez Jr. beat incumbent Adela Segovia and two other challengers Saturday for the District 4 trustee seat on the San Antonio Independent School District board.

Valdez, 65, defeated Segovia, who was seeking a second four-year term; Fernando Velazquez, 32, a resident services coordinator for a senior living facility for Inter-Faith Texas; and John “Rocky” Graciano, 51, a customer service representative with West Telemarketing.

“I'll tell you, I just never thought that I would win,” Valdez said by phone Saturday night as he thanked supporters. “Now that I'm on the board, I'm going to make darn sure that we focus on the needs and the problems of this district.”

Valdez led with 877 votes, about 44 percent of the total. Segovia trailed with 640 votes, Velazquez had 283 votes, and Graciano drew 183 votes.

Valdez campaigned on a promise to boost the graduation rate at SAISD by maintaining academic rigor and increasing access to technical and vocational classes, which he said paved the way for his own career as an aircraft engineer at Comlux Aviation.

Segovia, 47, said in March she was not worried about facing three challengers, noting that she won the District 4 seat in 2009 against five candidates.

Only two of the four board seats up for election this year at SAISD, the city's third-largest school district, were contested.

Officials said Alvarado tried to withdraw after the deadline, but his name had to stay on the ballot, costing the district more than $25,000.

Guerrero, appointed to the board last February after trustee Carlos Villarreal stepped down for health reasons, won a full term with 1,063 votes, or 74 percent.

Steve Lecholop, 31, an attorney with the firm Cox/Smith, ran unopposed for the District 1 seat vacated by Rubén Cuero. He has served on the citizens' oversight committee, monitoring the progress of the district's $515 million bond.

“Having two new faces will allow us to hit the reset button and talk about where we are today and talk about a plan of action for the future,” said school board President Ed Garza, 44, a former San Antonio mayor, who was unopposed for a second term.

The beleaguered school board recently drew controversy for unanimously approving a superintendent finalist who withdrew within days amid news reports of legal and financial problems.

Trustees disagreed on how much of it they had known beforehand and put the superintendent search on hold.